Oh, Those International Contacts

I am excited to announce that I have set up my Twitter account and have started to follow some educational resources and some very interesting educators in London and Australia.  Later tonight, as I learn the Twitter environment I will investigate a little deeper into who the people I am following are following themselves.  I am looking forward to sharing the resources and information I come across on Twitter.  So far I have found a useful resource for tracking and setting up portfolios for the children in my class at kustomnote.com and a great article from London on athletics in school.  You can follow me on Twitter and see the people I follow under the username kiykojayne.  I found that some of the people I have begun to follow also have blogs I may begin to follow a well, where they share news, classroom updates, and resources.  This has actually inspired me to start a blog for the program I work for to keep parents updated on what’s going on in the program and child development and may even help build community support.  Reading their blogs sheds light on some of the issues they are currently faced with.  To my surprise, someone has even begun following me…I feel obligated to get going on those tweets…again I am very excited.  Technology never ceases to amaze!  Twitter has provided an outlet to make those international contacts that have been so elusive thus far.  Real contact with real early childhood educators from around the world.  I am looking forward to Facebook links with some of those individuals I have begun to follow and more personal contact through emails…it only took seven weeks…lol.  However, I am confident that this is the beginning of a network that could span the length of my career as an early childhood educator and beyond.  YEAH!

Ideas and Insights That Relate to My Professional Goals

·      More than 1600 young Thais have been receiving short messages from UNESCO Bangkok every day through Facebook and telephone SMS.  The messages contain quotes from well-known people around the world from successful business executives and movie stars to scientists. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/worldwide/single-view/news/inspiring_young_thais_via_facebook_and_sms/

This is wonderful.  I could use this type of inspiration and experience with technology.  It is crazy and I need to get on the technology bandwagon.  This is an area I could really utilize much more than I do…my sixty something year old dad texts more than I do!

·       For every individual who goes online from a computer, two more do so from a mobile device.  Even where schools and computers are scarce, people still have mobile phones. Mobile technologies are promoting collaborative learning in science classes in Chile; strengthening communication between principals and teachers in Kenya; reinforcing newly-acquired literacy skills for women and girls in Pakistan; facilitating adult vocational training in Europe; and improving the efficiency and speed of educational data collection in Argentina. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/resources/online-materials/single-view/news/learning_in_a_book_poor_mobile_rich_world/

Technology is becoming so important and reaching places and people that would not have access to a classroom otherwise.  How wonderful is that?  This just reinforces my belief that it wont be long before technology is the reason equity in education will some day no longer be an issue.

·      The scale and diversity of mobile learning projects in the United Kingdom and Denmark indicate that sustained government investment is necessary to roll out large projects, which effectively use mobile phones for learning. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/resources/online-materials/single-view/news/new_unesco_papers_on_mobile_learning_in_europe/

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Given the role and importance that technology is taking on in education, it only makes sense to enlist government help to fund programs that would increase it’s availability to the public.  By this I mean if you can enhance and increase education and learning opportunities through mobile devices…why not?

Technology is an avenue that I feel will increase the achievement of my educational goals and I definitely need to do a little more exploring, learning how to utilize available technology a whole lot more!